A quick, down and dirty, overview of shared writing and how it might support your students.
A Writing Routine with Primary Writers
What is your writing routine? Find some advice and tools to assist you in developing a routine that works for you and your students.
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Video Writing Prompts: Keeping kids engaged in those “between units and right before vacation days.”
Video Writing Prompts: Keeping kids engaged in those “between units and right before vacation days.”
It’s that time of year in many of our classrooms: that restless time between Thanksgiving break and winter recess. I mark my kids “present” every day, but I know that most of them are, in fact, many miles away - dreaming of festivities, skiing, vacations, and lazy days in pajamas. Every day seems to be… Continue reading Video Writing Prompts: Keeping kids engaged in those “between units and right before vacation days.”
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Digital Tools Invite Writers to Compose – #NCTE13
Two of the sessions I attended at NCTE in Boston helped me think about ways two digital tools could be meaningfully integrated into early childhood and elementary school classrooms to engage young writers. The "Exploring Collaboration of Multimodal Literacies in Early Childhood: Digital Filmmaking, Designing, and Co-Authoring" panel discussed the way digital video cameras could enhance learning, while two of the presenters in "Writing Workshop Is for All Students: Using Visuals, Oral Language, and Digital Tools to Maximize Success and Independence for English Language Learners" suggested the incorporation of digital cameras.
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WRITE, SHARE, GIVE: SOLS TIME
Just before we left for our Thanksgiving break, a fellow teacher I’d been trying to persuade to join our Slice of Life community emailed me to say that she’d finally got her blog up and was really excited about writing a slice of life every Tuesday. It was going to be her New Year’s resolution.… Continue reading WRITE, SHARE, GIVE: SOLS TIME
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Family Literacy Night: Writing Together
The teachers noticed that several parents had written comments such as, "Great story, but you need commas" or "Nice job. Fix your capital letters." We wondered how to help parents understand that this writing was not meant to be perfect or polished. As teachers, we talked about the kinds of comments that would help nudge these kids as writers.
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Does “Published” Need to be “Perfect?”
There's a reason for second and third editions of really great books--a writer's work is never done, and is certainly never, ever perfect.
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A Thankful Day
Thinking about writing a poem? A poem full of Thanksgiving is a great place to start.
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Reflections on writing workshop: Sometimes when they say they’re “done” they’re really done
copyright: Bill Watterson - Calvin and Hobbes This is pretty much how Josh felt when I pulled my conferring stool up next to his desk yesterday and asked, "So, how's it going?" He had been working on his memoir for the past week, and making very slow progress. Most of our writing workshop class… Continue reading Reflections on writing workshop: Sometimes when they say they’re “done” they’re really done
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Write, Share, Give: SOLS Time
“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its done. It's that easy, and that hard.” ― Neil Gaiman
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Learning & Connecting at NCTE
I returned from three wonderful days at the NCTE Annual Convention in Boston late last night. I learned from authors, poets, classroom teachers, literacy coaches, PhD students, university professors, and other literacy leaders. Here's a sampling of some the things I gleaned at this year's convention.
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Happy Charting: ‘Smarter Charts’ Authors Marjorie Martinelli and Kristi Mraz Share Some Tips for Your Classroom
It's always a joy to learn with Majorie Martinelli and Kristi Mraz. In this interview, they share some excellent advice on using charts to support independence in the classroom.
